ARK: Survival Ascended

Highlights

Cloth Armor in ARK: Survival Ascended offers lightweight protection with good heat and cold resistance for early-game players.
Hide Armor provides a significant upgrade in Armor Rating over Cloth, but has poor heat protection at Level 15.
Ghillie Armor at Level 33 offers decent protection, camouflage, and good balance between heat and cold resistance in mid-game.

Despite its controversial launch on October 25, 2023, ARK: Survival Ascended has proven to be a popular new addition to the ARK franchise. Although it does not offer much in the way of new gameplay over ARK: Survival Evolved, the graphics are much more impressive.

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As with almost all survival games, Armor (or Gear as ARK calls it) is an important consideration for players. As they progress through levels, they will unlock additional standard gear sets. These have different stats, and can be mixed and matched to create unique effects. Durability is a consideration, and higher durability armor will last longer before needing to be repaired.

This list does not cover special armor sets that are not available to all players on all maps.

7 Cloth Gear

Basic Armor Protection

Stats:

Level: 3
Rating: 40
Cold: 40
Heat: 60
Weight: 3
Durability: 25

Cloth Armor is the first armor set that is unlocked by new players to ARK: Survival Ascended. However, this does not mean that it should be discarded once the player has leveled up a little. It has poor stats for PvP, but is not terrible in early-game PvE.

Because Cloth Armor is lightweight, and offers fantastic cold and heat protection for its weight, many veteran players will carry a set in their inventory to switch into if they need cold or heat protection. This means that, should the player encounter an environment that requires such protection, they don’t need to go back to their base to change gear.

6 Hide Gear

Good For Mixing With Cloth Armor

Stats:

Level: 15
Rating: 100
Cold: 85
Heat: -25
Weight: 10.5
Durability: 45

Unlocked at Level 15, Hide Armor offers a significant upgrade in Armor Rating over Cloth Armor. However, this extra rating comes at a cost, as Hide Armor has terrible heat protection.

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Some players choose to mix and match Cloth and Hide Armor parts, to balance out their cold and heat protection, but provide a higher Armor Rating than Cloth Armor alone can provide. This is arguably the most effective way to quickly get balanced armor stats until much later in the game.

5 Ghillie Armor

Camouflage Armor

Stats:

Level: 33
Rating: 160
Cold: 24
Heat: 155
Weight: 24
Durability: 45

With its decent Armor Rating and good cold and heat protection, many ARK: Survival Ascended players see the Ghillie Armod as an excellent general-purpose armor for everyday use. This armor also camouflages the player, which reduces their visibility range by half.

However, the fact that this is Level 34 armor means that new players to the game will have to wait quite a while before they can gain access to the Ghillie Armor. For these players, the aforementioned combination of Hide and Cloth Armor might be a good choice until they can level up a bit more.

4 Chitin Gear

Solid Armor Rating

Stats:

Level: 37
Rating: 250
Cold: 43
Heat: -35
Weight: 22
Durability: 50

Chitin Armor is considered mid-game armor by ARK: Survival Ascended players. It offers a decent level of armor protection at Level 37, and makes a good general-purpose replacement for the Ghillie Armor, but this armor has very low heat protection.

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Cloth Armor parts are often combined with this armor to offset the problems with heat protection while maintaining a respectable overall Armor Rating. Until the player can access the more advanced end-game armor, this is likely the best way for them to get the most armor protection our of this Gear.

3 Riot Armor

High-Level Armor With Great Rating

Stats:

Level: 98
Rating: 575
Cold: 60
Heat: -16.8
Weight: 42
Durability: 120

This is a late-game armor in ARK: Survival Ascended. It gives excellent protection if worn as a full set. However, the heat protection is something of a problem, although not as nuch as with other sets such as Chitin or Hide. With the best Armor Rating of all gear sets, the Riot Armor is the best armor for tough combat encounters, such as boss fights.

The great thing about Riot Armor is that it reduces how much torpor the user receives from external effects. This includes being hit with a melee weapon such as a wooden club, or a ranged weapon like the slingshot. Unfortunately, this protection doesn’t apply to torpor caused by poison attacks.

2 Flak Armor

Excellent Mid-Game Armor

Stats:

Level: 56
Rating: 500
Cold: 60
Heat: -25
Weight: 30
Durability: 120

Available to unlock at Level 56, Flak Armor is a solid choice for players who have just reached the mid-game stage. Yes, it has the usual heat protection hole that almost every armor set in the game suffers from, but the fact it gives 500 armor protection at Level 56 means it is hard to overlook.

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This is another armor set that is often mixed with Cloth Armor parts, to try and flatten the heat and cold protection stats and make a more balanced set. Cloth Armor is especially useful for this, as it has great heat protection stats.

1 Fur Armor

Excellent Early Game Protection

Stats:

Level: 23
Rating: 200
Cold: 249
Heat: -105
Weight: 34
Durability: 125

Fur Armor has the highest durability of any of the standard armor sets in ARK: Survival Ascended. However, despite this, this set is very situational, and can only be used in biomes that don’t require any heat protection at all. That being said, in cold biomes, this is as good as gear gets.

Unfortunately, even swapping out some parts for another armor set that has better heat protection can’t really fill the hole in the Fur Armor's stats. This armor is at the top of this durability list, but is far from being the best overall armor in the game. It is great for many tasks, but the moment the player needs to enter a hot biome, they will need to head back to base and change gear, or throw on the full Cloth Armor set to keep pushing on.